Chapter 358 Vulnerabilities and Death
The truth has been revealed
Now, Jemin stands inside this massive, realistic yet "awkward" model, facing its core.
The truth swept past like a torrent, but another crucial question quickly surfaced in Jemin's mind: a paradox concerning his own existence.
“I have another question.” Jemin looked at the four faces frozen like masks. “Why did you choose me? Or rather, why is my ‘background setting’ so special?”
He thought of Rex: "Someone like Rex could be an orphan with simple social relationships, which would make him easier to hide and manipulate. Why would he specifically create a complete family for me, even including childhood friends like Amy and Victor?"
The four mouths opened simultaneously, giving a surprising answer to Jemin:
"Because you are a singularity, number 721. My core system is unable to read and construct a life path that can fulfill your true inner desires. Creating close social relationships for you is a compensatory measure based on the system's fundamental logic of 'maintaining the stability of an individual's social existence,' but without the driving force of your true desires, the accuracy of the construction is naturally insufficient."
"Unable to read my wish?" Jemin was slightly taken aback.
"Yes. Tell me, number 721, strip away all appearances and excuses, what is your deepest, most essential desire?" Four voices overlapped, carrying a deeply hidden urgency.
Jemin fell into deep thought.
He recalled his experiences after transmigrating, practicing the Qi cultivation method day after day for more than ten years without seeing any results, eagerly absorbing knowledge in the wizarding world, and doing his best to integrate the two systems to create talismanic artifacts, black giants... What was the most fundamental driving force behind all of this?
After a moment, he raised his head, his eyes clear and firm, and answered frankly:
"strength."
"To grow stronger and stronger, to surpass the limits, and ultimately... to become a superhuman power that transcends everything."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jemin instantly understood!
The underlying logic of "fairness" is to "suppress the extraordinary power of everyone" in order to achieve absolute fairness.
But Jemin's core desire is to "obtain and continuously enhance extraordinary power."
These two things are irreconcilably opposed at the most fundamental level of rules!
One side wants to suppress, the other wants to pursue, creating a perfect logical vicious cycle!
Therefore, the "wish fulfillment system" upon which "justice" relies to maintain the entire world completely fails in Jemin's case.
It could not "arrange" a life for him that both suppressed his power and fulfilled his desire for power, so he became a "BUG" that the system could not understand, an "outlier" that could not be assimilated by "happiness"!
For the first time, a fluctuation that could be called "emotion" appeared on those four faces—an extreme confusion and disbelief based on logical conflict.
"Why?" Four voices asked, puzzled. "The pursuit of power is a common behavioral pattern. But analysis shows that individuals pursue power in essence to achieve other goals: to gain status, to accomplish specific tasks, to satisfy their sense of security, to win respect... Power is merely a 'tool' to realize these deeper desires."
Jemin shook his head, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable firmness:
"The pursuit of power, especially extraordinary power that allows one to constantly surpass oneself and break boundaries, is itself the goal. Does it need any other reason?"
Seeing the simultaneous look of surprise on the four faces, Jemin could understand them perfectly, because it wasn't just a simple difference in will, but a fundamental difference in worldview.
Every civilization, due to its different history, environment, and culture, will give rise to completely different ultimate pursuits.
The initial pursuit of the cultivation civilization was "immortality," so their power system began to pursue physical immortality from the Golden Core stage, and theoretically, immortality could be achieved at the Nascent Soul stage.
The initial pursuit of the wizarding civilization was "knowledge," so their second-level wizards began to study laws, and third-level wizards could sense spatial fluctuations. All their power was for the purpose of better exploring the unknown.
The essence of Jemin's soul comes from the world he lived in before—a purely technological world without any supernatural powers.
We seek something precisely because we lack it.
In a world where individual power is unattainable, the yearning for "power" itself is etched into the cultural DNA in a purer and more extreme way.
Unable to achieve physical sainthood, they pursued spiritual "enlightenment," with the resolute attitude of "If I hear the Way in the morning, I can die content in the evening."
Unable to move mountains by hand, they championed the power of machinery.
For even "minor" muscle growth, some people are willing to pay the price of their health, and quite a few men are even willing to discard their testicles...
It is a primal desire, deeply rooted in biological instinct, to "surpass oneself and become stronger."
Jemin actually understands the current chaos surrounding "fairness".
After all, when he was young, he was also surprised to see the children of the wizarding civilization completely indifferent to a straight tree branch (foreshadowing in Chapter 85).
"Some people like socializing, some like enjoying good food, some like sports, and I just happen to like getting stronger." In the end, Jemin simply used the simplest words to mask this complex difference in worldview.
"Justice" fell silent, its four faces frozen, as if a massive system was operating at full capacity but could not find a logical path between "suppressing power" and "realizing the desire to 'pursue power'".
After a long silence, the cold voice sounded again: "Understanding failed. Your core parameters fundamentally conflict with the system's underlying instructions. You are a... vulnerability."
Jemin suddenly remembered the intelligence he had seen before, about the three wizards who had mysteriously "died" in the early stages of the war.
"By the way, what was the situation with those three wizards who died earlier? According to your logic, you don't seem like someone who would actively eliminate others."
"Fairness" replied: "They also discovered other vulnerabilities and attempted to exploit them to reverse engineer and break the system's core rules. Their actions were deemed the highest level of threat to the 'Absolute Fairness Realm.' In accordance with core instructions, they were eliminated."
"I see..."
Jemin raised his head, his gaze calmly meeting the face that belonged to "Amy," yet now seemed utterly unfamiliar, and asked his final question:
"So, how will you deal with me, who cannot be accommodated by your 'fairness' and is a loophole in itself?"
There was no answer from "fairness".
The next instant.
There were no warning signs, no process whatsoever.
Jemin felt that his "existence"—his thoughts, his perceptions, everything about him—had been directly erased from the very foundation of this world in an incomprehensible, indescribable, and irresistible way.
Before he could even feel fear or regret, his consciousness was plunged into absolute, eternal darkness.
He died.
(Don't believe or spread rumors; this book isn't finished.)
(End of this chapter)
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